Madelin Adena(MAS)

"Only the small child and the artist have that immediacy of approach that permits perception of the environmental. The artist provides us with anti-environments that enable us to see the environment"--Marshall McLuhan

ARTIST STATEMENT 2019

VIA NEGATIVA: "a way of describing something by saying what it is not, especially denying that any finite concept of attribute can be identified with or used of God or ultimate reality."

I have always been fascinated by that which is just beyond the visible, just beyond the possible, just beyond the veneer. With a nod to the old masters who skinned humans down to their underlying anatomy, I aim to skin humans down to their underlying reality.

Aesthetically, this translates into a visually flexible world that hovers between exactness and distortion, with unidentifiable points of view and stretched dimensions. Through negation and disorientation, I create pieces that prompt reflection upon what is by the representation of what is not. This is a deeply personal experience for each viewer for which there is no universal answer. This collection is a meditation on anti-environment just as much as it is a meditation on the environment.